Michigan Politician Speaks Out on “Right-To-Work”

A state representative makes the kind of loud, honest, proclamatory statement politicians are supposed to tiptoe around. Good for him.

On December, 6, 2012 Representative Brandon Dillon (D-Grand Rapids) stood before the State of Michigan House of Representatives to admonish the Republican members of the House for their sneaky and underhanded behavior surrounding the “Right-to-work” vote. He said,

It is particularly unfortunate that the bill that probably has the highest public policy impact of any we have debated here, and in the last 50 years, the other side didn’t have the common courtesy or the guts to allow the public to hear what they were doing. No committee hearings. No opportunity to debate amendments. No public input. Republican staffers in the gallery taking up seats so that taxpayers who traveled across the state to get here are locked out.

The policy was voted on and passed later that day, and signed into law on December, 11, 2012 amid protests by groups across the state. Michigan became the 23rd state in the US to adopt the anti-union “right-to-work” laws.

Although Rep. Dillon’s speech did not change the outcome of the vote, it is refreshing to see a politician openly speaking out about the underhanded and secretive manipulations that so often seem to go hand in hand with the legislative process.

The first job I ever had was for a supermarket. I learned what “closed shop” meant when it was explained to me that money would be taken out of all my paychecks to pay union dues. I asked if I had to be a member of the union, and they told me that the union had explicitly required that all employees be union members. In other words, they would take my money whether I liked it or not. But that was supposed to be okay, because I could vote in the union and try and get them to change their… Read more »